Halloween

Today was a beautiful day for the kids to trick or treat. It was in the 60's here. Christian had a party at school today. They got to wear their costumes and have a little parade. He and Maizie went trick or treating together tonight. They both got a lot of goodies. Christian is not into sweets. Most of his candy will go to me. I do not mind that at all, especially the chocolate!.

This morning i took Christian to Dunkin Donuts. He absolutely loves going there. He wanted two cake doughnuts with chocolate frosting. I did not think he could eat both of them but he did. He is a good breakfast eater. There is a restaurant nearby that he loves to go to and have eggs. He will eat and eat there. Once the owner came by and asked him what his favorite thing was on his plate, he said the toast. I do not know what it is about the toast but he will eat his and mine. I try and tell him that i can make toast at home just the same but mine never seems to compare.

band ext ravaganza

It seems I have not posted anything for a while. I had my kids conferences and then they were home on fall break. It seemed they were home forever. They were even saying they were ready to go back to school.

My son had his band extravaganza last night. All the grades from both schools meet. They each play a song and last is the marching band from the high school. He has been playing the trombone since fifth grade. He is pretty good at it. He informed me that next year in high school he is joining the jazz and marching band both. I was extremely happy to hear that.

paren/teacher conferences

Today was my parent/teacher conference at Christians school. He got all E's and +'s on his report card. He got a check mark because he was having trouble distinguishing a square from a rectangle.
He is really starting to pick up on recognizing words. Everywhere we go he is pointing words out to me. I talked with his teacher about volunteering in the classroom. I am going to help out a few times a week. It should be fun. Tomorrow is Daniel's conferences. He is in eighth grade so I will be doing some walking. His classes are pretty close together. When I was in middle school I had to cover two whole floors . They always let me leave five minutes before class got out so I would not get ran over in the hallway. I am looking forward to meeting his teachers. He is taking Spanish this year and just loves his teacher. A good teacher always makes a class more enjoyable.

St. Lukes Hospital

My sister found this picture of me and put it up. I am lying on the mat in the therapy room at St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids , Iowa. I spent a lot of time there. I was about seven in this picture. I was in the hospital for many months. After a while the nurses , doctors, and therapists became like family in a sense. In this picture I was hamming it up. Trying to avoid my therapy session i'm thinking. The expression on my face is like, "I don't think so", "I'm not doing that again". I never really liked my therapy sessions. After I started back to school they even had a bus come and get me to take me to therapy. I could not get away from it. I think I even pretended to be sick once.

Even though I never much cared for my therapy It helped me to get to where I am today. I do not go to therapy anymore. I belong to the YMCA and go to walk the track. That is my therapy. I try to walk a mile. I will go and start walking and others who start at the same time as I do are finished before me. They will say things to me like, "You go girl" or "your doing great hon". I enjoy the words of encouragement. Some people come and just take off running. I always want to stop them and ask them to carry me along with them. I started out to where It took me 2 hours. I am now down to 45 minutes. It is very calming and stress relieving to walk the track.

Alone at last

As much as I love my children, I also love my quiet time alone. My dad picked Christian up a bit ago. He is spending the night there. Daniel is out and about outside with his friends. It is almost to quiet. I think I might order myself a pizza and get an on demand movie. Daniel will probably end up staying at his friend's house. I at times find myself missing my kids when they are gone. I spend so much time missing them that by the time I figure out what to do with my time they are back home.

I had an incident last night where one of my sons friends just kind of said he was moving ou of his house and wanted to move in to mine. Before I really had a chance to respond he was bringing over his clothes and computer. He is a wonderful kid but I just can not take on another child. I am not the most assertive person and had no idea what to do or say. I told him he could spend the night and cool off from whatever transpired at home but he would have to go back home or find somewhere else. That was a hard one for me. I did not get much sleep lastnight because I was trying to think of the right thing to say.

I am off to read the newspaper and enjoy my quiet time.

Just another day.

Today was a great day . I went to get gas after I dropped Christian off at school. I love the current price of gas. I then went to Goodwill to look around. Sometimes you hit the jackpot there, other times you are not so lucky. My sister came over and made filets on the grill. It was reallly good. Maizie and Christian hav such fun together. Well, good night for now. I am half asleep as I'm typing this.

A bit more about myself

In my first post I introduced myself as short and simple as I could. Being that It was my first post I did not want to bore anyone. I thought that in this post I would tell you a bit more about myself. I walk with a cane and wear a brace on my left leg. I am blind in my right eye and deaf in my right ear. I have been this way since I was six years old. I basically grew up this way. To me my disability is nothing. I have encountered people who will say,"oh you poor thing" as I walk by but I just kind of shrug it off and wonder what their problem is. I never really know how to respond to that. Sometimes I will just say thank you and smile. I don't think they are being mean or anything. When I was younger something like that would have me in tears for days.

I have always been a spiritual person. I think that is what has helped me to get to where I am today. Not only that but my determination and the love and support of two wonderful parents. Yes, I may seem a bit odd or different to someone who just sees me for the first time but I really am just like anyone else. That is something I have always taught my kids. That no matter what color a person is, in a wheelchair, uses a cane or whatever their differences may be we are all the same .

very therapeutic

This is my sixth post since I started my blog. I have to say I find it very therapeutic. After I get the kids to bed it is nice just to sit down and pluck away at the keyboard. I have always admired both my sister blogs. They are both two very talented and wonderful people. Marla is still teaching me things. I need to learn how to post pictures.

Today was one of those lazy days for me. I did not do a whole lot. Christian and I went to the store before I took him to school. He was hesitant at first. He told me going to the store is boring. I said I know but if you want to have some food we need to go. He was up and ready to go in a flash. daniel had his band concert last night. The band played three songs. They were great. He plays the trombone. He sang in the choir to. Christian even enjoyed it.

I'm bored

I sound like my fourteen year old. He is always bored. I finished my laundry and straightened up the house so I thought I would write some more. Yesterday I went to see the movie Walle about the robot. It was very cute. It was also nice to have a little time away from the kids. I love them very much but lately I find myself longing to get away from the stress. My oldest son Daniel is now a teenager and we most often do not see eye to eye on things. He tends to think he can live by his own rules. I just get so burnt out from dealing with him.

I love to read a good book. It is my escape. I love to read non fiction. I am always looking for a good book to read. If you know of any let me know. I tend to get latched onto one particular author but after a while I get tired of that person. The latest book I have read is called The Betrayal by Ann B. Gabhart. That was really good,I read that in a week. It was about the shakers.

My other favorite escape is shopping. Even if I can not buy anything it is relaxing just to walk around looking at things.

Thank you to every one who has read my blog and commented on it. This is still new to me. I am looking forward to visiting your blogs as well.

I just got done dropping Christian off at school. He is in Kindergarten now. I am still not quite sure what to do with myself while he is gone. I am so used to having him home. The other day I went on a field trip with him and his class to the apple orchard. I always try to prepare myself because little kids are curious and have tons of questions about my disability. The first question was, "did you break your arm?". We had four kids in our group. On the bus ride there the little boy i was sitting next to told me i had yucky teeth and did i ever go to the dentist. It is funny what little kids say. The field trip was a lot of fun. I guess I better go for now and get some laundry done or something. Not that I really want to.

Another day gone by

Today was a beautiful day out. I took my son to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I thought it was really cute. My son thought it was sad and was crying on the way out. He did not understand that it was a happy ending and all of the dogs got homes. He tends to get very emotional at some movies. For Christmas I got him the movie Snoopy Come Home. He is a snoopy fan. We watched it together and I've never seen him cry harder. I almost started crying myself. He cried when snoopy left charlie brown to find his previous owner.

Here it is almost eleven at night. I can't believe how fast the days go by lately. It seems Friday comes and then before I know it Monday is here and we are back to our weekly routine.

a bit about me

I am a disabled mother of two lovely boys. I am starting this blog with the hope that I will meet others like me. At the age of six I had a stroke due to a brain stem hemorrhage. It left me paralyzed on the right side of my face and the left side of my body. I have had to overcome many obstacles to get to where I am today. The most rewarding of them all is being able to be a mother. It is frustrating and challenging but I would not change a thing.